Shabby Chic style furniture

What makes the Shabby Chic furniture style so popular and how it developed.

Shabby Chic furniture style is particularly popular in France and in England since about 2012 and, like “Vintage”, it conveys the feeling of comfort through its feminine character and ornate details. The only difference to the vintage furniture style is the “used” effect.

Origin and development

Shabby Chic is not much more than furniture and accessories of the vintage or cottage theme having a nostalgic used effect. One feels somehow in Grandma’s apartment or house back in when the furniture was slightly worn in the course of many years. Shabby Chic furniture style makes us feel at home.

Key characteristics of the style

Colors of Shabby Chic are bright, partly ashen wood furniture of vintage-style with a used painting in white or cream. Romance and nostalgia are the keywords in Shabby Chic furniture style.

This means the furniture is rarely found in the store (the best pieces can be found at the flea markets and online in classifieds). It also takes some imagination to see what may become of the old furniture when you color them and breaking the edges. A well-known company with Shabby Chic furniture style is Chic Antique.

Upholstery furniture in used look is often too much for this style. Better find a nostalgic sofa, possibly with ornate backrests. Because honestly: who wants to sit on a worn-out cushion?

There are no limits to the accessories: opulent picture frames, nostalgic clocks and figures, rose flowered cushions and curtains, an old porcelain set with a pretty decor, always matching the color of the room with a main tone. This is more harmonious. As for fabrics, Shabby Chic takes everything from vintage style: cotton, linen, lace and nostalgic printed fabrics.

Flooring is often used in matching laminates, parquet and wooden flooring. If you have ash-colored furniture, you should also think about the appropriate flooring, honey-colored and light woods are less suitable. Shabby Chic wallpapers are decoration posters with larger roses and hydrangea motifs, or nostalgia wallpaper with lines and patterns from the cottage style.